GD's "Coup d’Etat" Nabs a Spot as One of Complex Magazine's Best Pop Album Covers

[uledy.livejournal.com]

Pop, derived from the word "popular," is a genre that's continually hard to define. Pop music shifts constantly, but over time, it has been known to include catchy melodies and hooks, repeated choruses, and widespread appeal. Today, pop music borders on a lot of rap and dance music, but at its core, the aforementioned qualities define it.

Picking a list of The 50 Best Pop Album Covers of the Past Five Years is hardly an easy task, but it's one that reveals a lot about how these album covers work. Especially in the context of recent pop releases—Katy Perry's Prism, Lady Gaga's ARTPOP, Sky Ferreira's Night Time, My Time, and M.I.A.'s Matangi—one realizes the tendency for pop covers to be direct facial portraits, sometimes without much more styling or design.

When it comes to more indie releases, the imaging naturally gets more experimental. Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion is an abstract optical illusion, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs photographed a fist crushing an egg for It's Blitz, and three versions of Santigold pose in front of a painting of herself for Master of My Make Believe.

This list includes pop albums that came out between November 8, 2008 and today. Enjoy this visual tour of pop music, and its best covers, from the last five years.

Cha Yorim of the Korea Herald Reports:
The artwork on the cover of G-Dragon’s recent album has nabbed 20th place in Complex Magazine’s “50 Best Pop Album Covers of the Past Five Years.” The star’s second studio album “Coup d’Etat” is the only album by a Korean artist that earned a spot on the list.

The album cover features a bright red background with a black symbol that can be interpreted as a modified peace sign. The symbol also resembles the emblem for voting in Korea. Complex Magazine writer Dale Eisinger described G-Dragon as a “visionary,” giving world peace a new meaning through the modified symbol.

Michael Jackson’s “Michael” topped the No. 1 spot on the list, with Bjork’s “Biophilia” coming in second and Vampire Weekend’s “Contra” coming in third.

G-Dragon recently collaborated on fellow Big Bang member Taeyang’s newly released single “Ringa Linga.” The artist reportedly worked on the lyrics together with a foreign composer and even makes an appearance in the music video which was released Saturday.


Sources: Complex | Korea Herald

what do y'all think is the best kpop cover and/or packaging?

personally, i liked beg's


packaging and bb's


shinee's sherlock was cool too.

Comments

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

HOW?


My version of Alive didn't rust so I'd say it's pretty cool and the Five treasure box was nice imo

[uledy.livejournal.com]

Mine JUST started to rust this past month, so I think that's pretty good.

[ohlookshiny.livejournal.com]

f(x)'s pink tape and iu's modern times special edition are my (recent) faves.

now i buy albums digitally bc physical albums are alot of money. but the packaging always makes me want to buy them alllllll.

i don't understand how gd gave world peace 'new meaning' with that symbol but w/e...

[footballfina.livejournal.com]

.......??? but it's so boring and basic tho.... GD's had WAY cooler album covers (i.e. ummm HEATBREAKER?!?!)

f(x)'s Pink Tape is HANDS DOWN my fave from the year and basically the past couple of years, i adore it.

[in-noctem.livejournal.com]

I'm boring and like uniformity so I like Block B's covers lol. Nell's Slip Away was pretty cool as well. As for packaging I liked BtoB's Press Play.

[mnemo-syne.livejournal.com]

I ordered that without looking at it first, so when it arrived I was like "what is this?!" Totally surprised by the big photocards etc. Love that one!

Coup D'Etat was the one that's more "regular CD" packaging, but I guess it pops from a distance if you prop it up on a shelf (which I like to do).

[sowahso.livejournal.com]

IGAB if only for the fact that it allowed me to have Jessica only as my album cover hehehehe
ill even forgive the shitty styrofoam

[frantastic.livejournal.com]

f(x)'s pink tape is the album of the year in terms of packaging (and sound tbh)

[achan123.livejournal.com]

packaging wise i'd say pink tape definitly
content wise i'd be a little bias and say misconception of me

[torontok.livejournal.com]

Pink Tape;s packaging was gorgeous and just fun.
also loved Lee Hi's first love packaging

[snoaz.livejournal.com]

that does look cute!

[bunica1990.livejournal.com]

I thought The Boys had pretty nice packaging. I also like what they did with Pink Tape and Hyuna's second mini album.

[hitthoselightz.livejournal.com]

sm packaging >

[allegsiseu.livejournal.com]

all of them really. i have yet to be disappointed by any packaging and are 70% the reason i get the physical album

previous ones mentioned are great, so i'll add wonder girls wonder party which came in a neon envelope

[baireoseu.livejournal.com]

i'm sort of a merch addict.. i've our purchased over 100 albums so honestly i'm rly picky about packaging. i like sj's 5jib version A, ZE:A's spectacular special edition, f(x)'s pink tape and btob's press play the most i think. B1A4 has consistent, fun and high quality packaging. nu'est makes all of their albums the same size and shape, and have numbers on the side, so they look really like on the shelf together. it really pisses me off when kpop albums are low quality omfg. I LOVE snsd but i have hated the packaging of every album i have of theirs so i will no longer purchase their music physically :/

[snoaz.livejournal.com]

oh wow it sounds like you have an amazing cd collection. I'm curious what it looks like.

[snoaz.livejournal.com]

I haven't even paid much attention to Coup d'État's album cover, but I guess it is nice in a minimalist kind of way.

I wish gd would explain his ideas behind it though, even more with One of a Kind, because obviously there's all that symbolism but without the explanation it becomes just random or cheap even (cheap symbolism just to look interesting or cool). I mean, not that everything should always be explained of course, there should be room for own interpretation, but with gd it's really bare minimum and that is something that annoys me a bit sometimes. Like you get only 80% of what you know is there.

As for favourite album covers... maybe GD & TOP's? The repackaged one. It's the favourite one I have in any case. :)

[canxi.livejournal.com]

I kind of love how Kpop goes above and beyond with their album packaging sometimes. Sometimes, I'm like "Ahhh! So many parts...where is the CD at??" but it's still pretty!

I liked the Coup D'etat album packing just because of the title and logo combination. The GD as peace sign is smart and also kind of symbolizes the revolution he's talking about or going through in his music. It becomes a broken peace sign which is all hyuk hyuk, clever because a coup d'etat is prooobablyyy not peaceful but the end result might be. The red is more of a standout than the black version, though.

[snoaz.livejournal.com]

I prefer the traditional square albums actually, with the k-pop ones it's like, I swear some of them even forgot it was an album in the first place and at the last moment they were like 'oh right also should add a cd to this.' There's doing it fancy and there's overdoing it, you get what I'm saying?

[gdgdbb.livejournal.com]

Out of the ~20 albums I have, Sherlock is by far my favorite packaging. Although favorite concept goes to XOXO by Exo. On my to-buy list though is Coup D'Etat, the hug version of XOXO (to complete my exo discography!), Nu Abo because the cover picture looks lovely, and B1A4's In The Wind so I have at least one B1A4 album. I would definitely get Alive for the rust if I didn't have Still Alive for the songs (kind of hypocritical though since I bought XOXO after both versions of growl lmao).

What's on your to-buy-eventually list, Omona??

[bunica1990.livejournal.com]

I need to get SHINee's Everybody, Why So Serious, and TVXQ's Humanoids (I know I'm late lmao). I also want to get the Chinese version of Growl, but idk since I already have XOXO and shipping for that one is expensive.

[guraeman.livejournal.com]

my fave album covers:
-GD&TOP's album with the bunny logo... im still pressed i didnt buy it before it got recalled. i had to settle for the white japanese edition
-beenzino's 24 26 album with the camel on it,
-most of primary's album covers are really nice.
- my ultimate fave is Tablo's solo album. didnt realise until i got the album that the cover is made of velvety material

oh and unpopular opinion but pink tape is the only fx album i didnt buy because i hated the packaging -__- (the songs are great as always though)

[gathyou.livejournal.com]

That's something I really like about Korea once I have the money to buy the album: packages. Seriously Tonight Special Edition is one of my first "big" k-pop album and I keep playing to get the CD in and out of the box, it's so much fun haha. Out of every album I have, it's my favourite ! (and it's better than Japanese albums which are soooo expensive and yet, not so original when it comes to packages...).
And I'm planning on buying f(x)'s Pink Tape soon, the songs are awesome and omg that package I need it in my life.

But Coup d'Etat is not that original compare to other stuff...

[a-perfect-shade.livejournal.com]

lol i love the tonight album!! at first i had no idea how the heck i was supposed to open it but once i did it became my fav album ever

[maffinoyobiai.livejournal.com]

My fave is definitely Sixth Sense BEG packaging.

[yolleh.livejournal.com]

If there's one thing I can't fault about YG, it's their packaging game.

[bunica1990.livejournal.com]

Psy's 6th mini album was also very fun

[snoaz.livejournal.com]

aha yes that does seem very fun :D

[tsuyoi-hikari.livejournal.com]

My fave got to be 2AM's first album special limited edition -- its big and look really elegant. It's like a wedding photobook box packaging with some really nice things inside it. ^^;

[chibiyunie.livejournal.com]

From all the awesome KPOP albums out there, this is the best?

Well, okay.

[mollyana.livejournal.com]

I can understand why they chose 'Coup d'Etat' cover with the clever GD as peace sing and all the symbolism behind the concept of this album. But I still think 'One of a Kind' was better album packaging from him.

Tumb up for BEG is 'Six Sense' and BIGBANG is 'Tonight', who i like both the mini and the repacage edition.My first Korean albums were Epik High is 'Map the soul' and 'Remapping of human soul', they both had an artistic , lovely and simple package. But my absolute favorite was Tablo is 'Fever is End' album, it was simple, classy and gourgeous. Other albums pacage I also liked are GD&TOP is 'High High' original edition, Shinee is 'Sherlock' mini, and Exo in 'Growl' repackage.

[kimiko1387.livejournal.com]

From my personal collection, I love JYJ's In Heaven (regular edition) I have it in blue. For this year, Lee Hyori's Monochrome. Matte poster with bevel gold lettering, an amazing booklet that was 80's art zine in style and feel on nice thick paper.

Least favorite: 2PM's Hands Up. I like when my packaging is pretty and unique but it should cater to its primary function of protecting/holding the CD. The folded sleeve is a nightmare. The weight of the CD has started to tear at the paper because I had the CD upright in my box for a while.